Assad says Syria in hands of 'terrorists'

Ousted president Bashar al-Assad broke his silence Monday after fleeing Syria, saying that he only left once Damascus had fallen, and denounced the country's new leaders as "terrorists".

He abandoned a country in which 70 percent of the population needs help, according to the United Nations aid chief, Tom Fletcher, who said in Damascus that he wants "a massive flow" of assistance into Syria.

Assad fled to Russia just over a week ago, as his forces abandoned tanks and other equipment in the face of a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) who reached the Syrian capital in 11 days.

The collapse of Assad's rule stunned the world and sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond, after his crackdown on democracy protests in 2011 led to one of the deadliest wars of the century.

Rooted in Syria's branch of Al-Qaeda, HTS is proscribed by several Western governments as a terrorist organisation, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric and pledged to protect the country's religious minorities.

Long before the emergence of HTS and jihadist groups in the Syrian war, however, Assad consistently branded his opponents, including non-violent protesters, as "terrorists".

"My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles," said a statement on the ousted presidency's Telegram channel.

Five former officials had told AFP that Assad was already out of the country hours before the rebels seized Damascus.

Russia and Iran propped up Assad during the war.

"Moscow requested... an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday December 8" after he moved that day to Latakia, where Russia operates a naval base, the statement released in English said.

"When the state falls into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost, any position becomes void of purpose," it said.

His flight came after five decades of rule by his clan, which operated a complex web of prisons to detain anyone even suspected of possible dissent.

- 'We want our children' -

As HTS and its allies advanced through Syria, they opened prison gates to free people who had been locked up for days, months, years and even decades under Assad's paranoid system of rule.

"We want our children, alive, dead, burned, ashes, buried in mass graves... just tell us," Ayoush Hassan, 66, told AFP at the notorious Saydnaya prison.

She travelled to the prison in Damascus from her home in northern Syria, but could find no trace of her missing son.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 100,000 people died in Syria's jails and detention centres from 2011.

The war sparked by Assad's crackdown on the revolt killed more than 500,000 people and forced more than half the population to flee their homes.

- Sanctions -

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Monday the bloc's envoy to Syria "will travel to Damascus today" to make contacts, adding: "We can't leave a vacuum."

On whether HTS could be trusted, she was cautious, echoing sentiments from other Western states that it will be deeds not words that count.

In Brussels, Kallas also said that Russia and Iran "should not have a place in Syria's future."

At the coastal port of Tartus on Monday, Russian troops loaded a truck at the entrance to the port they control, while HTS fighters manned a nearby checkpoint.

But they told AFP they were under orders not to approach the Russians, whose flag still flies over a military enclave in the terminal.

The UN envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, told HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa that Syria must have a "credible and inclusive" transition, according to a statement on Monday.

Qatar's embassy is set to resume operations on Tuesday after Turkey, a key backer of some of the rebel groups that ousted Assad, reopened its embassy.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on Monday that the UK has sent senior officials to meet with Syria's new leadership as well as civil society groups in the country.

Washington earlier said it had been in contact with HTS. Both Britain and the United States still designate the organisation a "terrorist" group.

Syria's economy is also constrained by Western sanctions.

A French diplomatic team is due in Damascus on Tuesday to "retake possession of our real estate" and make "initial contact" with the new authorities, acting Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country was coordinating on providing aid including wheat, flour and oil to Syria. Ukraine has been at war since Russia invaded it in 2022.

- 'We lived in misery' -

Syrians need "food, medicine, shelter, but also the funds to redevelop the Syria that people can believe in again", said Fletcher, the UN aid chief.

For Mudar Ghanem, an ex-prisoner who went to see Assad's white-marbled home with a swimming pool in Latakia, that means a Syria where the president "looks after the people and doesn't humiliate us".

"To think that he spent all that money and we lived in misery," said Ghanem, 26.

Since Assad's fall, Israel has carried out more than 470 strikes on military sites in Syria, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, on Monday reported "the heaviest strikes" in the costal Tartus area in more than a decade.

The United States also carried out air strikes in Syria on Monday, the US military said, killing a dozen Islamic State group fighters.

Washington is seeking to prevent the jihadist group from taking advantage of the fall of Assad's government.

President-elect Donald Trump characterised the rebel ouster of Assad as an "unfriendly takeover" by US ally Turkey.

"I think Turkey is very smart... Turkey did an unfriendly takeover, without a lot of lives being lost. I can say that Assad was a butcher, what he did to children," Trump told reporters at his residence in Florida.